This application relates generally to magnetic disc drives and more particularly to a device designed to facilitate probe mediated testing on a disc drive in a typical laboratory environment, i.e., non-clean room environment.
Disc drives are data storage devices that store digital data in magnetic form on a storage medium on a rotating information storage disc. Modern disc drives include one or more rigid discs that are coated with a magnetizable medium and are mounted on the hub of a spindle motor for rotation at a constant high speed. Information is stored on the discs in a plurality of concentric circular tracks typically by an array of heads mounted to a radial actuator for movement of the heads relative to the discs. Each of the concentric tracks is generally divided into a plurality of separately addressable data sectors. The read/write head is used to transfer data between a desired track an external environment. During a write operation, data is written onto a disc track and during a read operation the head senses the data previously written on the disc track and transfers the information to the external environment.
In order to produce a high quality disc drive device, as well as to design alternative disc drives and disc drive components, disc drive manufacturers perform a number of specified tests on the disc drive and its components. These tests often require that an airtight seal on the disc drive be breached and access to the interior of the disc drive be accorded to any number of analytical testing probe(s), for instance, insertion of a capacitance probe, laser doppler velocimetry (LDV) probe, photonic sensor, etc. Breach of the disc drive seal allows air from the disc drive""s external environment to enter the disc drive""s internal environment. As such, the testing must often, if not always, be performed in an environment relatively free of contamination, because contamination that gets into an operating disc drive can lead to damage to the read/write heads and to the data recorded on the information storage disc. Damage to these structures ultimately leads to xe2x80x9chead crashes,xe2x80x9d i.e., a collision of a head with the magnetizable medium of the information storage disc, which in some cases may occur in as few as fifteen to twenty minutes of operation in a contaminated environment. Therefore, disc drive testing must often be performed under relatively contamination free conditions.
Currently, disc drive related testing is performed in either a class 100 environment or under a clean hood where particulate matter and other forms of contamination are filtered from the testing environment. However, it is often inconvenient, expensive and space limiting to perform all disc drive related tests under these clean hood/dedicated clean room conditions, especially in the cases where bulky or highly complex equipment must be employed to perform the testing procedure on the drive. Rather, it would be convenient, cost effective and possibly increase productivity to be able to perform a number of probe mediated tests on a disc drive in the absence of the constraints of working under a hood or in a dedicated clean room.
Accordingly, there is a need in the relevant art to overcome the obstacles prevalent in disc drive testing, in particular there is a need in the relevant art for a device and method that allows for disc drive testing to be performed in an ambient, contaminate containing, laboratory environment, where the testing environment is not dedicated to disc drive testing. Against this backdrop the present invention has been developed.
The present invention is a contamination resistant probe attachment device for use with probe mediated testing procedures on a disc drive, where the testing is performed through an opening in the top cover of the disc drive in a contamination containing environment.
One exemplary embodiment of the present invention is a contamination resistant probe attachment device for coupling a testing probe to the interior of the disc drive. The contamination resistant probe attachment device protects the disc drive from contamination from outside the disc drive during a probe-mediated test. The contamination resistant probe attachment device includes a base, having an attachment portion for attachment of the contamination resistant probe attachment device around an opening in the top cover of the disc drive, and a platform portion extending inwardly from the attachment portion, the platform portion having a centrally located stub tube. A first end of a flexible tube is attached around the stub tube and a second end of the flexible tube has an aperture for receiving the probe used in the probe-mediated test on the disc drive.
Another embodiment of the present invention is a method for performing a probe-mediated test on a disc drive in a contaminated environment. The method includes the steps of attaching a contamination resistant probe attachment device around an opening in the disc drive in an essentially contamination free environment, inserting a probe into the contamination resistant probe attachment device for testing on the disc drive and performing the probe mediated test on the disc drive in a contaminated environment.